OUR OPINION: Uruguay goes first on marijuana

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Uruguay has volunteered to be the canary in the cannabis field.

The small — population 3.4 million — Latin American nation has voted to legalize the growth and sale of marijuana.

The country’s senate narrowly approved a law allowing individuals over age 18 to buy up to 40 grams — just over 1.4 ounces — a month from state-licensed dealers. Individuals also have the alternative of growing up 1.06 pounds of pot for their own use. The price is likely to be around $1 a gram.

The commercial planting, harvesting and sale will be under the control of a state Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis. Sales will be limited to Uruguayan nationals, to head off the possibility of becoming a drug tourism destination, and exports will be prohibited.

Uruguay’s action is part of a growing sense that the U.S. war on drugs has been a dangerous and expensive failure that has cost the lives of thousands and fostered an atmosphere of lawlessness. Even Uruguay, which was never a major producer or consumer, saw drug-related homicides rise over the decade.

Shortly before he left office, Mexican President Vicente Fox, who battled unusually powerful and violent drug cartels, became an outspoken advocate for legalizing drugs, especially marijuana.

Diego Canepa, the chief of staff to Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, told The Wall Street Journal, “The war on drugs has been a failure in Latin America. It’s been seen that the U.S. has given the dollars and we’ve given the bodies.”

The Uruguayan experiment will test several theories put forward by advocates of legalization here and elsewhere. Proponents say that legalization will take much of the profit out of cultivation and thus the incentive for violence. The sale of marijuana at token prices will cut down on petty crime. And both taken together will undermine the drug cartels.

The United States should monitor the Uruguayan experiment in the spirit of trying to learn something. Our prison system has become ridiculously costly housing inmates given long sentences for minor drug infractions and in areas out West where marijuana has become legal under state law, if not federal, the foundations of civilization seem to have survived — at least so far.